In a joint rescue operation, the Delhi Police and NGO Shakti Vahini have rescued eight girls, including a minor, who were locked inside a trunk in a brothel on GB Road. Two of them were lured on the pretext of marriage and sold to the brothel 15 days ago.
A case under IPC sections of immoral trafficking, kidnapping and under the POCSO Act was registered at Kamla Market police station on Friday. Following this, the brothel owner Padma was arrested. The trafficker, however, is still at large.
The rescue operation was triggered by the search for a minor girl who went missing from her home about a month ago. “The rescued minor girl, who hails from West Bengal’s 24 Pargana district, was a Class X student. She told the police that she came in contact with her trafficker over phone. The man, according to her, initially said his phone got connected with a wrong number but gradually started talking to her,” a member of Shakti Vahini said.
“When she met him for the first time, he brought her to Delhi saying he wanted to marry her but instead locked her in a room. She somehow managed to contact her family, who in turn contacted members of Shakti Vahini through the local police in West Bengal. However, by the time the family reached Delhi, the girl was already sold to the brothel,” he added.
The police along with the NGO members conducted a raid on GB Road about a week ago but the girl was not found then. They again conducted a raid on Friday and rescued her along with another girl.
All the girls were kept hidden inside a trunk by the brothel owners. While six of them refused to go back home, two girls who were trafficked and brought here – the minor and a 22-year-old – expressed their wish to return. The 22-year-old girl told the police that she came in contact with one man who gradually befriended her and promised to marry her but eventually sold her off to a brothel after bringing her to Delhi.
After being rescued the girls were counselled by the representatives of the Delhi Commission for Women and were later sent for medical examination.
